BIG BEN

Evening Star, Issue 22938, 21 April 1938, Page 10

BIG BEN

BOTH BIRTHDAY " NOBLEST CLOCK IN THE WOULD " Last week was the eightieth birthday of Big Ben. known not only as the most famous clock in the world, but also as .the noblest. Actually, Big Ben is the great bell which marks the hours in the Clock Tower of the Houses of Parliament in London. Somehow the roaring boom from ms bell throat seems to have spread its famous intonation not only over mighty London, but abroad and into the corners of .Empire and of tne ”°What child does not know something of Big Ben? And what child does -.«>t follow up the mastery of his first song, ‘ God Save the King,’ by learning the two-line tune played each hour on the bells of Big Ben? So, hour bv hour, be Thou my guidej That by Thy power, no step may slide. Bi" Ben has even moved to the screen. In colonial talkie houses there is now the familiar introduction to an evening programme of Big Ben in silhouette, with face lit and his voice crying out eight deep-timbred notes like some night-watchman of old London. Besides size and splendour of workmanship* the clock is noted for its tower-setting of delicate beauty. the ' CLOCK TOWER.

Oue of the three large towers do minting the majestic Houses of Parliament, the Clock Tower rises with deli-cately-panelled walls through three stories to a height of 316 ft. Its lovely shaft rises solemnly and holds a gilded head far above the main building. Above the clock and the lantern tower just above it are those pretty corner towers, which hang like fanciful growths of a submarine lime cavern. The lantern is lighted at night so long as Parliament is in session. The present tower which houses Big Ben stands on the site of an original tower, which was destroyed by fire with the first Houses of Parliament in 1834- This tower housed a great bell given by William 111. to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The bell was called “ Westminster Tom.” Big Ben was cast from “Westminster Tom.” The: British Broadcasting Corporation, which is celebrating Big Ben’s .80th birthday, claims the first casting of the bell was unsuccessful, and that the beloved Big Ben of to-day was the product of the second casting. Be that-as it may. Big Ben has hung ever since and stroked out infallibly his definition of time.

Big Ben’s 13-ton weight hangs from a huge iron girder. About him. four smaller bells,» each a two-tonncr, he wajlipg to btrikp the „ quarters* The

clock itself has a grand maasmty.. Kach of the four opal glass clock face* is 22ft 6in across. The figures stand 2ft high, and the, minute spaces fiava a square foot between them. The copper minute and hour nanus are 14ft and 9ft long respectively, and weigh more than 2cwt each, bojne *ewcalculated that they travel more than 100 miles m a year. BUILT IN 1858. Three hundred and seventy-four steps have to be dizzily climbed before vou range about the internals of Big Ben. Built by Dents of London, was put there in 1858, and- waa named Big Ben in honourof e h* jamin Hall, who was Chief Commis. koner of tforks at the time., , Big Ben has become one ot the great marking-out of the path of destiny.